James W. Cleary

Born April 16, 1927, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,[2] Cleary received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Marquette University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[2][1] He taught speech at the University of Wisconsin and later rose to the administrative ranks, ending his tenure at Wisconsin as the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.[3] Cleary became President of California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in 1969 and served until his retirement in 1992.[2]

Cleary served at San Fernando Valley State College during a time of great unrest.[2] Immediately before Cleary arrived on campus in 1969, the presidential suite had been destroyed by an arsonist,[4] and the acting president along with his staff had been held against their will by protesters in the administration building amid racial turmoil.[5] Early in Cleary's tenure as president, a case was brought against twenty-one students, "the first mass prosecution of student protesters on felony charges and the first attempt at conspiracy convictions."[6] Cleary brought campus disciplinary charges (including expulsion) against all of the students after many of them were convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court on a variety of felonies, including kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and false imprisonment.[6] Roy Wilkins of the NAACP wrote a personal letter to Cleary protesting the campus disciplinary actions, given that almost all of the accused students were African American.[6] Toward the end of his time at CSUN in 1991, Cleary followed the lead of the CSUN Faculty Senate and rejected a proposed campus regulation that would have prohibited discriminatory speech against gays and ethnic minorities, despite advocacy of the measure by student leaders and the campus affirmative action coordinator.[7]

In 1991, after anti-gay flyers were found on the campus, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley wrote Cleary a letter condemning gay intolerance at CSUN: "Bigotry and hatred clearly have no place in any community, especially a college campus."[8] Cleary also condemned the message of the flyers, but expressed dismay that Bradley made the letter public before Cleary received it.[9]

Cleary encouraged campus interaction with Chinese universities in the early 1980s.[10] The newly appointed Chinese ambassador to the United States, Han Xu, gave his first speech in the United States at CSUN.[11]

Cleary oversaw the transition from San Fernando Valley State College to California State University, Northridge in 1972.[2] He also brought the university to NCAA Division I status in 1990,[12] and raised funding to build dozens of buildings on campus.[2] CSUN became known for its prominent deaf studies program, which was another Cleary legacy.[10] Cleary weathered student and faculty protests,[13] scandals,[14][15] and budget crises[16] to last 23 years at CSUN. In 1986 he was chosen by the Exxon Education Foundation as "one of the 100 most effective college presidents in the nation."[1] At the time of his retirement in 1992, Cleary had grown the university to 30,000 students and had increased the number of degree programs by 50 percent.[1]

Cleary was married to Mary Cleary until her death in 2002.[17] They had three children together. Cleary died on April 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho.[2]

Cleary published several books during his career.

• A bibliography of parliamentary procedure (Lehigh University Press, 1962)
• Rhetoric and public address : a bibliography ; 1947-1961 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1964)
• John Bulwer's Chirologia: The natural language of the hand, and Chironomia: or, The art of manual rhetoric (Southern Illinois University Press, 1974)
• Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (Scott, Foresman, 1970)

• California State University Northridge